Women of Early Plymouth

Governor William Bradford reported that the Pilgrims were worried that the "weak
bodies of women" would not be able to withstand the rigors of a trans-Atlantic voyage and
the construction of a colony. Prior to the Mayflower, very few English women had made the voyage
across the ocean. Sir Walter Raleigh's Roanoke colony arrived in Virginia in
1587, and amongst those 120 colonists there were 17 women: a baby girl, Virginia
Dare, was born after arrival. When re-supply ships came from England, they
could not relocate the people. The colony had mysteriously disappeared, and was
never seen again. The Jamestown Colony was founded in 1607, but relatively few
women had yet made the voyage and taken up residence there.

The Pilgrim husband, as head of the household, had an important and difficult
decision to make. Building a colony would be hard on a woman's "weaker body." It
might be safer and more healthy to leave her behind, and have her come later
once the houses were built, and the general safety and successfulness of the
colony were better established. But that could be several years. Could he live
several years without his wife? How strong was his wife anyway, could she
really handle it? Was it right to put your wife's life in danger in this
manner?

Francis Cooke, Thomas
Rogers, Samuel Fuller and Richard Warren felt it was better if their wives
Hester, Alice, Bridget and Elizabeth stayed behind, and came over later. Degory
Priest also left behind his wife Sarah, despite the fact Sarah's brother Isaac
Allerton came on the Mayflower with his pregnant wife and three young
children. But most husbands, 18 in total, decided their wives should come with
them. Was it the right decision?

As the Mayflower left England for America, there were 18 adult women
on-board. Three of them, Elizabeth Hopkins, Susanna White, and Mary Allerton,
were actually in their last trimester of a pregnancy. All the adult women on
the Mayflower were married, there were no single women--although there
were a few teenage girls nearing marriageable age.

While no women would die during the Mayflower's voyage, life after
arrival proved extremely difficult. In fact, 78% of the women would die the
first winter, a far higher percentage than for men or children. Dorothy
Bradford was the first woman to die, and the only woman who died in the month of
December. While many of the men, including her husband, were out exploring on
Cape Cod, she accidentally fell off the Mayflower into the bitter cold
waters of Provincetown Harbor. Most of the women's death dates were not
recorded, but we do know that Rose Standish died on January 29, Mary Allerton
died on February 25, and Elizabeth Winslow died on March 24. Most of the women
died in February and March.

The extremely high
mortality rate among women is probably explainable by the fact the men were out
in the fresh air, felling trees, building structures and drinking fresh New
England water; while the women were confined to the damp, filthy and crowded quarters
offered by the Mayflower, where disease would have spread much more
quickly. The two-month voyage was long enough; the women, however, remained
living on the ship for an additional four months while the men built storehouses
and living quarters on shore. Many of the sick were no doubt cared for on-board the ship by the women, increasing their exposure to colds and pneumonias.
William Mullins died on February 21, apparently on-board the Mayflower
since his will was witnessed by the ship's captain and ship's surgeon. His wife
Alice and son Joseph had not yet died, but it wasn't too long before they did,
orphaning their teenage daughter Priscilla in the New World.

Only five women survived the first winter. One of the five survivors, Mrs.
Katherine Carver, died in May of a "broken heart," her husband John having died
of sunstroke a month earlier. Weak bodies or not, by the time of the famous
"Thanksgiving," there were only four women left to care for the Colony's fifty surviving men and children. The four women were Eleanor Billington, Elizabeth Hopkins,
Mary Brewster, and Susanna (White) Winslow. Susanna Winslow was the widow of William
White who died the first winter; she remarried to Edward Winslow, whose wife
Elizabeth had also died the first winter.

Incidentally, all the wives who had been left behind were still living. Four
of them came on the ship Anne in 1623, had additional children, and
raised their families at Plymouth.